I Tried Smart Glasses With A Built-in Display, And They Made My Meta Ray-bans Feel Outdated

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Rokid Glasses are launching done Kickstarter, pinch a unit value of $599.
• They characteristic built-in displays that task textual information, specified arsenic a teleprompter, AI responses, and more.
• The 12MP camera sensor leaves thing to beryllium desired, and a unchangeable net relationship is required for astir functions to work.

Lately, I've been reasoning a batch astir Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's quote astir being astatine a cognitive disadvantage if you're not wearing AI glasses successful nan future. At first, I dismissed it arsenic conscionable different connection to nan investors. But aft retesting nan Meta Ray-Bans this summertime and past trying nan caller Rokid Glasses, my skepticism is quickly recalibrating.

The Rokid Glasses are nan latest to participate what has been a bustling marketplace of AI wearables successful 2025, and they're afloat of promise. Besides having nan now-expected benefits of smart glasses, specified arsenic hands-free photograph and video capturing, you tin besides pat into (or telephone on) Rokid's ChatGPT-powered sound adjunct to reply queries, navigate nan UI for you, aliases process ocular accusation for you done its 12MP sensor.

Also: 5 Meta Ray-Ban upgrades that person maine earnestly excited for September 17

Sure, nan Meta Ray-Bans tin tally multimodal operations too, but not arsenic good arsenic nan Rokid Glasses, based connected my 24 hours of testing them truthful far. And nan second brace has a typical instrumentality up its sleeve: Micro LED waveguide displays, an advancement that suggests that existent invention successful smart glasses mightiness not beryllium what you perceive but what you see.

A forgettable creation (in nan champion way)

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

There's beauty successful tech that conscionable blends in, whether it's a smart ring that tin find our day's outlook aliases smart glasses that tin switch a accepted brace while offering much, overmuch much functionality.

The Rokid Glasses are a premier example, pinch a alternatively textbook look -- glossy achromatic frames, rubber chemoreceptor pads, and each -- that tin easy walk arsenic conscionable different brace of opticals. In fact, I commuted from Times Square to Downtown Brooklyn yesterday pinch nan wearables on, and nan deficiency of funny glares and crisp eyes amazed me. 

Also: Samsung 'Galaxy Glasses' powered by Android XR are reportedly connected way to beryllium unveiled this month

Can those astir maine really not spot nan greenish projections I was seeing from nan different side? Or was it conscionable different lawsuit of New Yorkers surviving nan accelerated life and minding their ain business?

Queue nan Matrix soundtrack

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

No, seriously. When you put connected nan Rokid Glasses, you're greeted pinch dual monochrome greenish displays depicting nan personification interface, a elemental three-carousal layout for nan sound assistant, settings, and unsocial matter features. At 1 point, I was waiting for Morpheus to look and show maine what nan destiny of my life would be.

That ne'er happened, but testing immoderate of nan Rokid's unsocial show features was rather exhilarating. Most of them landed good -- arsenic I had Rokid's typical quick-fire demos astatine maine -- including a teleprompter that scrolls arsenic nan built-in microphones prime up what words you've spoken and a unrecorded translator instrumentality (based connected ChatGPT) that efficaciously detects what connection is being spoken to you, aliases captured by camera, and translates it.

Also: Look out, Meta Ray-Bans! These AI glasses conscionable raised complete $1M successful pre-orders successful 3 days

In 1 scenario, I had requested nan Rokid typical to speak Mandarin Chinese to maine and abruptly move to Spanish. While nan likelihood of being successful a speech involving 3 languages is not truthful high, and processing nan words "Ni hao ma" and "Hola, como estas?" would make immoderate Diamond League Duolingo personification laughter retired loud, nan truth that nan glasses seamlessly transcribed and translated nan speech near maine impressed. Even my telephone can't do that.

Navigating nan floating UI was speedy and easy, though immoderate of my inputs didn't registry astatine times -- perchance a sensitivity bug related to pre-production units. You tin either pat and swipe connected nan outer limb aliases simply inquire nan AI adjunct to occurrence up tasks. There's besides a beingness fastener supra nan broadside framework that you tin property erstwhile to return a photograph and long-press to commencement a video recording.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

As acold arsenic contented capturing goes, I'm gladsome to spot Rokid reasoning creatively astir really to leverage nan 12MP Sony sensor. Natively, nan glasses sprout successful a 3:4 facet ratio (the aforesaid arsenic nan Meta Ray-Bans). But then, you tin use a default harvest to nan footage truthful that nan glasses sprout successful either 9:16 astatine 9MP aliases 4:3 astatine 6.8MP, gaining viewability successful lieu of resolution. There's besides 60FPS signaling that's capped astatine 720p. It's a crippled of tradeoffs.

Also: Samsung 'Galaxy Glasses' powered by Android XR are reportedly connected way to beryllium unveiled this month

From my first tests, nan Rokid Glasses' camera doesn't surpass nan Meta Ray-Bans. Not yet, astatine least. While photos and videos person a adjacent magnitude of detail, they noticeably deficiency vibrancy and contrast. I'm hopeful that package updates tin elevate nan camera's capacity from a C to a B tier, but fixed that nan merchandise is still successful its crowdfunding phase, that betterment whitethorn not travel for a while.

Bottom statement (for now)

That leads maine to my last point, which is that you should ever workout be aware erstwhile it comes to Kickstarter and different crowdfunded projects. In Rokid's case, I'm really leaning toward nan hopeful side, knowing that it's being developed by a reputable marque successful nan wearables space, and my first tests person been mostly positive.

After testing some nan Meta Ray-Bans and nan Rokid Glasses, it's clear that nan early of AI wearables is not a mobility of if, but how. While there's still room for refinement -- from camera value to package stableness -- nan Rokid Glasses' burdenless creation and innovative ocular displays beryllium that we're moving toward a world wherever exertion doesn't conscionable augment our reality, it becomes an invisible, integral portion of it. 

The "cognitive disadvantage" Mark Zuckerberg warned astir is nary longer a distant sci-fi concept; it's a quickly approaching reality, and devices for illustration nan Rokid Glasses are astatine nan forefront. What Meta unveils astatine Connect 2025 successful 2 weeks will either solidify their lead aliases beryllium that nan title is already catching up.